Novels
The CW TV Series "The Carrie Diaries is based on the novels “The Carrie Diaries” and “Summer and the City” by Candace Bushnell. The Carrie Diaries The Carrie Diaries is a book series written by Candace Bushnell. The series is a prequel to Sex and the City, and will follow the character of Carrie Bradshaw during her senior year of high school during the early 1980s and part of her life in New York working as a writer. The Los Angeles Times described it as "An addictive, ingenious origin story." Characters *Carrie Bradshaw – The protagonist of the novel. Smart, witty, and a bit naive, Carrie is an aspiring writer and the oldest of three sisters. The story is told from Carrie's perspective, as she navigates her senior year of high school. Carrie's mother died prior to the start of the novel, leaving her and her sisters Dorrit and Missy under the care of their protective father. At the beginning of the story, Carrie is rejected from an advanced writing seminar at The New School. She is later admitted to Brown University, her father's alma mater. When she forms a relationship with the new kid at her high school, Sebastian Kydd, Carrie finds herself in conflict with the school's most popular girl, Donna LaDonna. After a string of unfortunate events befall her, Carrie jumps to the conclusion that Donna LaDonna is behind everything. During this time, Carrie's relationship with Sebastian and with her envious best friend Lali deteriorate. Carrie, however, pretends that her affairs are in order as she helps her other best friends, Walt and Maggie, face their own issues. Sebastian and Lali soon turn their backs on Carrie, but Carrie eventually learns how to forgive them. Donna LaDonna and Carrie become friends after taking Photography Class together. When she learns of Carrie's aspirations of moving to New York City, Donna gives Carrie the phone number of her "cool cousin" who resides in the city. In the end, Carrie heads to New York for the summer after The New School finally offers her a spot at their writing seminar. When she arrives in New York, Carrie loses her money and has no way of getting around the city, prompting her to contact Donna's cousin, who ends up being none other than Samantha Jones. *Sebastian Kydd – The love interest of Carrie in the book. Sebastian moves to Castlebury High after getting kicked out of his old high school. He comes from a wealthy family background and Carrie describes him as "smart and perfect," while perceiving him to be a caring individual. His mom was an old friend of Carrie's mom, and it is made clear that Carrie has been infatuated with Sebastian ever since she first saw him when she was 12. Sebastian's true nature, however, is later revealed through his lies and infidelity, particularly with Carrie's best friend Lali. *Donna LaDonna – The school's most popular girl, and an aspiring model. When Donna first appears, she was described as someone "in a white dress with a deep V, her ample cleavage accentuated by a tiny diamond cross hanging from a delicate platinum chain." She is feared by most kids at her school, and Donna also has a string of admirers in her life. Carrie comes into conflict with Donna and views her arch-nemesis as someone with no insecurities. However, Carrie is later taken aback after she learns that Donna's biggest fear is that someday, some guy will see her without mascara and run screaming from the room. Donna and Carrie eventually become good friends after becoming partners in their Photography class. Donna gives her cousin's phone number to Carrie for her to contact when she arrives in New York. *Lali Kandesie – Carrie's "frenemy" and the main antagonist of the story. Lali, at first, appeared as someone who had good intentions and who only wanted what was best for Carrie. But when Carrie starts a relationship with Sebastian, Lali's true intentions become clear and her insecurities and treacherous character comes to the surface. Lali starts to make disconcerting comments and even pulls practical jokes towards Carrie, making Carrie believe that the pranks were caused by none other than Donna LaDonna. When Carrie and Sebastian experience problems in their relationship, Lali takes advantage of the situation. At the end Carrie confronts her after finding out that Donna wasn't the one behind the situation and tells her that she wants nothing to do with her anymore. *George Carter – Carrie's handsome suitor who grew up in New York City and is a student at Brown. George is very affectionate towards Carrie and is supportive of her ambition to become a writer. Carrie sees George as no more than a friend, but Carrie's father insists that she marry someone like George. While on a ski trip, Carrie learns that George is friends with Sebastian's older sister, Amelia. Through Amelia, George learns that Carrie is in a relationship with Sebastian, thus breaking George's heart. George, however, warns Carrie that Sebastian is not who he seems. Carrie dismisses this fact but despite this, George continued to lend support for Carrie to the point of introducing her to his aunt who is a successful writer, Mary Gordon Howard, referred to as "The Gorgon" by Carrie. *Walt – Walt is Carrie's other best friend. Carrie describes Walt as "one of the girls" as they practically do everything together with their other best friend, Maggie, whom Walt dates in the book. Walt and Maggie have been dating for two years, and Maggie wants to have sex with him. Walt, however, does not comply with Maggie's wishes—causing Maggie to end their relationship. It is later revealed that Walt is gay, and is dating former quarterback 20-year-old Randy Sanders. *Maggie – Walt's sexually active girlfriend and a best friend of Carrie's. Maggie suffers from low self-esteem, viewing herself as "fat" and "ugly," despite Carrie's assertion that "boys have been drooling over her since she was 13." Walt and Maggie date at the beginning of the book, but their relationship ends when Maggie fears that Walt has intimacy issues and after she develops feelings for Peter, a nerd-turned-hot guy. *Roberta Castells – a.k.a. "The Mouse," or "Mighty Mouse", is one of Carrie's closest friends. The Mouse is described as pragmatic and as the smartest girl in school. She has a boyfriend named Danny and after she reveals to Carrie that she and Danny have already had sex, Carrie begins to wonder whether everyone is having sex and if she's the only virgin amongst her group of friends. The Mouse appears to be very trustworthy and is well liked by a lot of people, especially Carrie's father. *Peter Arnold – described by Carrie as "the second-smartest boy in our class and kind of a jerk." It is revealed that Peter used to be a chubby-faced short kid with pasty skin, until he grew and took up smoking. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper, The Nutmeg, which Carrie later writes for, using the pseudonym Pinky Weatherton. After Maggie breaks up with Walt, she starts a new relationship with Peter. Peter later breaks up with Maggie for popular Jen P., a friend of Donna LaDonna. *Missy and Dorrit – Carrie's two younger sisters. Missy is generally more well-behaved compared to the much younger Dorrit, who constantly rebelled throughout much of the novel. Carrie gets along better with Missy, especially since Dorrit had a habit of stealing their possessions and is jealous of the fact that their mother favored Carrie. *Shayna Jones - Shayna is the wise and witty, 11-year-old that Carrie babysits. Shayna hates the fact that she needs a babysitter but loves that it's Carrie. Shayna is known to be Carrie's Hype Woman. She also hates when people say her name wrong. Shayna even helps Carrie with her homework. She is extremely hated by Dorrit and but never says anything or does anything back to Dorrit, until one episode, when she punches her straight in the nose. Reception Reviews of the book have been generally favorable. Joel Ryan of the Los Angeles Times gave a positive review, calling the novel "an addictive, ingenious origin story" while asserting that the brilliance of the book is that "sex is really beside the point." MTV's Hollywood Crush also gave a positive review saying, "All that plot is great and keeps you glued to the page until the end, but what sticks with you later are Carrie's internal musings." Summer and the City Summer and the City is a young-adult novel written by Candace Bushnell. The sequel to The Carrie Diaries, it was first released as a hardcover on April 26, 2011. Characters Carrie Bradshaw – The protagonist of the novel. Upon her arrival in Manhattan, Carrie moves in with Samantha Jones, the cousin of a friend from her hometown. Synopsis Picking up where The Carrie Diaries left off, seventeen-year-old Carrie Bradshaw has left her hometown and treks to New York City. Set during the summer before her freshman year at Brown, Carrie learns to navigate her way through the Big Apple, takes a writing class at The New School, and even pursues a relationship with an older man. Joining her along the way, she meets Samantha Jones, a true Manhattan fashionistas who's determined on the path of fame and fortune, and the opinionated feminist Miranda Hobbes who is a freshman at NYU. Category:Content